WILTSHIRE boss Neil Shardlow conceded that his troops were always playing catch-up as their first match in the Unicorns Knockout Trophy away against Wales ended in a 72-run defeat.

Wales won the toss and chose in Newport to bat and made the most of a superb batting pitch and some wayward Wiltshire bowling to reach 352 in 49.5 overs.

After an opening stand of 77 in eight overs, Michael Claydon (117) and G Ansell (82) put on 121 for the second wicket.

Wiltshire’s spinners then put a brake on the run-rate but Wales were still able to rack up a very challenging score. Nick Harrison led the Wiltshire attack by taking 3-73, Tom Morton claimed 3-76 and Ed Young 2-44.

In reply, Wiltshire made a good start, with Tom Morton (59) and Ed Kilbee (27) putting on 85 for the first wicket.

However, the Wales spinners then took advantage of Wiltshire’s weakness against this type of bowling as the visitors collapsed to 147-5 before Neil Clark (42) and Michael Bates (56) put on 69 for the sixth wicket.

The resistance did not last, though, and Wiltshire were eventually all out for 280 with 5.4 overs remaining. Connor Brown took 3-7 for Wales.

Shardlow said: “I’m disappointed. It was a tremendous wicket and tremendous facilities.

“It was an absolutely belting batting track but we lost the toss, which wasn’t ideal, but you’ve just got to get on with it in that situation.

“Unfortunately, we conceded too many runs in the first few overs and put down a few chances as well, which was crucial. It was hard to come back from that after giving them such a good start.

“If you get 350 that’s a very good score but with the players we have in our side we were confident of chasing it down.

“If you are going to do that you need someone at the top of the order to get a century. Although we started well we fell apart again when the spinners came on.”

Wiltshire’s next match group match is on Sunday against Dorset, who were beaten by Cornwall las weekend, at Warminster starting at 11am. With Ed Young unavailable, Steve Bullen comes into the squad.

Shardlow says nothing less than victory will do if his sideare to make it out of the group stages.

“You have to get off to a good start to get confidence going,” he said.

“We have to bounce back now and win the next game. We’ve still got a chance to get through but we need to win two of the next three games, which makes it extra important that we win on Saturday.”

Wiltshire squad v Dorset: Michael Coles (Corsham, captain), Tahir Afridi (Henley), Michael Bates (Oxford, wicketkeeper), Steve Bullen Neil Clark (Potterne), Tom Foley (Corsham), Nick Harrison (Corsham), Ed Kilbee (Goatacre), Henry Langford (Corsham), Tom Morton (South Wilts), Uzi Qureshi (Frocester), Jake Roberts (Potterne).